A Decade Later, Land Claims Are Relinquished By Creek

COCONUT CREEK -- The city finally relinquished its last claim to several properties in the old Palm-Aire at Coconut Creek development, nearly a decade after the area was deannexed from the city.

The City Council on Thursday turned over to landowners the properties` quitclaim deeds in which the city relinquished all the rights, titles, interest, claims and demands of the land to its owners.

The properties are now part of the city of Margate, which annexed the area about nine months after it split away from Coconut Creek in 1980.

``My only question is: What took so long?`` asked Coconut Creek city council member Sam Goldsmith during during the council`s Thursday meeting.

City Attorney Paul Stuart replied, ``The legalities of this thing were so shadowy and so muddled that there really was no legal conclusion, even to this date.``

The property in question lies along Florida`s Turnpike, just south of Southwest 11th Street.

The lots were designated for a park in the land`s preliminary zoning blueprint, known as a plat, in 1976 when it was still part of the city. In 1988, the property was divided into nine parcels under the name ``Palm Gate.``

A motion to approve the quitclaim deeds was unanimously approved by the City Council.